Venn Diagram: EDAC, EDA, ARM TechCon 2014

This blog started out as a mini-research project: How many members of EDAC are exhibiting at ARM TechCon 2014? I went into the project with the pre-conceived notion that ARM throws such a large shadow across the world of IP and EDA that everybody in EDAC would be exhibiting at ARM.

What I discovered, however, is something completely different. In examining the lists, I found that there are 4 overlapping circles – think Venn Diagram – that comprise the totality of a world made up of ARM TechCon exhibitors and EDAC members.

Here are the lists of EDAC members who are exhibiting versus those who are not:

These results were actually quite shocking to me. I had wrongly assumed that EDAC members would feel obliged to play in ARM’s world, to be an exhibiting presence at their user conference. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The majority of EDAC members are not exhibiting at ARM TechCon 2014.

Meanwhile, this mini-research project yielded an additional result, equally surprising. Of the 45 members listed on the EDAC website, 6 companies no longer exist. They’ve been acquired by Big EDA, and some of those acquisitions happened quite some time ago:

* EDAC members that are included as members that actually no longer exist, having been acquired: BDA is now Mentor; EVE is now Synopsys; Forte is now Cadence; Jasper is now Cadence; Oasys is now Mentor; and SpringSoft is now Synopsys.

Somebody needs to either update the EDAC website, or they need to explain why these companies are still listed as members. Are they still members?

Finally, I also found numerous companies who are exhibiting at ARM TechCon 2014 that really should be members of EDAC, but are not:

* Exhibitors at ARM TechCon who are not members of EDAC, but should be: Calypto, Carbon Design, Breker, Uniquify, Doulos, Imperas, Kilopass, and True Circuits.

Why don’t these companies belong to EDAC? Is it too expensive to join? Have benefits of membership been inadequately articulated? Has the EDA industry become sufficiently factionalized that membership in the Consortium has little impact on a company’s sense of well-being?

I’m sure for each of these companies, there’s a specific and legitimate answer. It’s also possible the vision EDAC was based on when it was founded in the 90’s may no longer be the reality. That would seem like a loss for the EDA industry, and for the customers who use their tools.

*******************ARM TechCon 2014

The conference is taking place October 1st to 3rd at the Santa Clara Convention Center. If you come, you can admire the new Levy Stadium just across the street, the new home for what was the San Francisco 49er’s. What are they called now?